"Black Mountain"

Route: Bleep for Brains Couloir
Posted On: 4/20/2025, By: slawrence2011
Info: Made another attempt on the couloir after not getting it clean last year. Still did not summit due to stout ridge moves and E having wind slab in the forecast. Ran into a couple other parties of three, one heading for dogleg, the other ahead of me. The party ahead of me turned around shortly above the rollover due to deep snow and reported wind slab concerns. It was easy going up to that point thanks to their booter (except the 400 feet of effort I wasted going up the wrong couloir one over at first that was bottomless). After their booter ended, I saw no further tracks. I was sinking above knee deep initially, gradually decreased to knee depth and less. I think it was brought about by being too close to the rocks on either side that warmed the snow, as well as numerous rocks under the snow that were not visible. I continued given the avy forecast had no wind slab on W and the adjoining directions. Only wet hazards were in the forecast for W, and that was not happening today. Skied down shortly before noon, a lot of rocks up high covered by the new snow load but I still hit. After the rollover, it was a mix of some heavy snow and exposed crust based on the three who skied before me through the narrow crux. I ended up side slipping 100 feet or so and not getting it clean again. Snow got nice and soft in the lower couloir, but once in the Apron, it all had a breakable crust until a couple hundred feet of the car. That's the risk I take skiing on a day when it didn't warm and assuming it wasn't temperature affected the day prior - it was. 

Route: A Basin Traverse
Posted On: 10/4/2024, By: Kbrown321
Info: Did the A Basin / Grizzly-Lenawee traverse, route was completely snow free (only snow we saw was over on Torreys). This is a fantastic ridge run; the combination of short drive, easy approach and deproach with very minimal BS (there was almost no talus hopping), and surprisingly lengthy scrambling sections make it a winner. Cruxes were the two notches to black mountain (maybe low 4 but unexposed) then lots of optional stuff after black mountain to keep the fun going. Rock quality is more Gore-y than IPW-y but any harder moves dont have much exposure. And then you get to end by looking at all the east wall chutes and blasting down the North Pole hike that feels so much harder in winter :) We did this as a loop from a basin by schwacking up the left side of the gully just north of the maintenance shed up to the subpeak between Cupid and Grizzly, which saved a car shuttle or long hike up Loveland. It was not a bad bushwhack at all. 

Route: Lenawee to Grizzly
Posted On: 7/23/2024, By: VeraUndertow
Info: Started from Lenawee trail on Peru Creek Rd at 7am. Hit SW Lenawee, scrambled over to Lenawee, on mostly all class 3, tho it's also all easy to bypass to the west. Then headed over to Black Mtn, from Lenawee the first little bit is grassy tundra before it turns to gnarled towers, which all went at class 4. Going from south to north all the C4 is up-climbing and the towers have Class 3 downclimbing, most of the rock is stable where you need it, but there is loose rock occasionally so double check. This whole area can also be bypassed lower down on loose talus but it looked a lot less fun. Eventually the scrambling tapers off as you approach the orange step down area of Black, this was very San Juan-esque for a little bit with orange rock and kitty litter scree, but as you gain elevation the rock becomes more solid and darker. I gained the ridge and scrambled up a cool knife edge section, to a slabby downclimb into the upper stepdown section. From here I climbed some class 4 up to the true summit, basically staying almost ridge proper or just to the west the whole way. Heading over to Grizzly Pk D (do we still call it that?) there is some more fun scrambling as you enter the top of SFB couloir notch, and then I scrambled up and over one tower, but the downclimb to stay ridge proper was a little more spicy than I was ready for so I bypassed the next two towers on some class 3 that descended west of the next notch. From this notch closer to Grizzly there is just a little bit of easy class 3 and then grassy tundra up to the summit of Grizzly D. I headed over to the Torreys saddle and dropped down into Chihuahua Gulch where I gained a great trail and followed that back to Peru Creek Rd and my car. Stats according to my Garmin which is often under reporting mileage was 9.1 miles and 5:48 minutes, with some jogging on the exit. The smoke was light but visibly noticeable today, hopefully no danger to manifold tho. 

Route: Bleep for Brains Couloir
Posted On: 5/11/2024, By: slawrence2011
Info: Did not summit. Started from near (but not in) the N A basin parking lot around 6:15 in ski boots. I was able to hike up the skin track in ski boots, no crampons, until the apron of the couloir, didn't sink too much. The couloir was not obvious until right below it, as the cliff walls are very high. The apron was about 4 inches of breakable crust that I sunk into, transitioned to crampons and ice axe right below the couloir proper. I sunk anywhere from 1 inch to ankle depth on the couloir, and was amazed at how steep and narrow and not flat the snow was on the way up, and made a mental note that the snow would have to soften for that to be safe. Summited shortly before 11, made some attempts to gain the summit, but way scared by the unconsolidated steep snow on the W side ridge, wind slab risk snow on the E side ridge, and steep scrambling without flat holds on the ridge proper, so gave it up after trying one attempt left and one right. Dropped in around 11, right to where it got narrow, but it was still bulletproof, so waited in snow for about 15 min, and there was hardly any sun, so finally transitioned back to crampons and hiked back up to the ridge. There, I did a little exploring to the North to see if I could possibly gain the easier couloir. The low route yielded a huge drop off I couldn't navigate. The high route looked possible, but too time consuming, so I dropped in again around 1. The upper snow was much better, but it was still bulletproof, jump turn survival skiing all the way down (and I cheated and side slipped a couple times where it was steepest, narrowest, and double fall line). Finally when I got to the Apron, it was edgeable crust (since finally past the slide debris), and in the trees, glorious heavy pow! Dropped into Abasin for the final few hundred feet, and walked all the way back to the car. Then, read Daway's TR since I felt stupid for not being able to summit even with so much time. And then I realized, glad I didn't. I'll have to tag that in dry conditions or haul a rope. Someone let me know if I am missing something, even with crampons/ice axe, didn't want to commit to that. 

Route: From Loveland Pass
Posted On: 3/9/2024, By: daway8
Info: I've done a spring and a winter ascent of Longs Peak with the Narrows fully loaded and found that to be a fairly intense experience for me. But that paled in comparison to this little tiny monster of a peak! This is an amazingly rugged peak that only showed up on the checklists recently with the Lidar updates. It's a super short hike, at only 3.35mi from Loveland Pass and most of that is a fairly easy albeit rollercoaster stroll over Cupid and Grizzly. Then it's just 0.41mi to Black Mountain, the first half of which is an easy class 2 stroll, but watch out for wicked cornices on the left (east) side. But the last quarter mile - wow! Some mountains, for instance Bross, are dull as dirt. Not this Black Beauty! Just looking at it is awe inspiring! And trying to find a way up the final rugged climb to the summit when it's heavily coated in snow and you have no idea how to get up it - well it was pretty intense! I failed on the first attempt in mid February, in large part due to a really late start because Loveland Pass was closed until almost lunchtime - that plus playing Armageddon Twister on the final slopes as the snow collapsed beneath me and left me on a class 5 slab just as the sun was going down - well it didn't work out that day. I've heard in summer it goes at class 4 or maybe a stiff class 3, depending who you ask. But in winter you need to be ready for about anything. I think I may have actually kept it close to class 3 today, maybe a little higher, but only with crampons, ice axe, helmet and many hair-raising moments of pushing my personal comfort zone for winter scrambling. Lots of brushing snow off rocks to look for holds. This is a great, albeit treacherous place to practice route finding and winter scrambling. It's very short but has lots of intense options to choose from and doesn't take a lot of time or effort to get to. A backcountry skier came up to the saddle from somewhere below Loveland Pass in February - looked like a possible way to avoid the energy sapping regain on the way back if you figure out where to start from. Will add a few teaser photos and likely do a TR at some point.